Getting your (football) bearings as a paralympian footballer.
Olympics and the Paralympics. British spirits were lifted when, in the wake of the hangover of the Olympic closing ceremony, the Paralympics burst onto our screens and into our papers just a few weeks later. Encouragingly, for advocates of Paralympic sport, the London 2012 games have been met with unprecedented enthusiasm and coverage from the general public and the media, respectively. A limelight has been put upon disabled people, giving rare illumination to the compelling and entirely distinct rules, methods and equipment used in Paralympic sport. One of these includes blind football which, to the sighted person who has never considered the sport, may seem like one of the most challenging sports to engineer. This article will take a brief look at blind football and how the game is adapted for blind and partially sighted players.
Metal ball bearings play an absolutely pivotal part in blind football. Inside the football are spherical ball bearings which may a noise when the football is kicked or moved around, allowing players to source the ball through hearing. The main sense used in blind football is hearing; the pitch is surrounded by boards which both stop the ball from going out and reflect sounds from the ball and footsteps. This way the players can orientate themselves, navigate the pitch and know where other players and the ball are.
Blind football is played on a hard surface (to again increase audibility) by two teams of five players. Since the teams are smaller than sighted football, the pitch is also smaller. If a team has mixed ability with some partially sighted players, those players will wear eye masks to ensure no advantage. The goal keeper is sighted, but must remain within the goal area for the entire match. A sighted “guide” also directs players from behind the goal.
In game-play various calls are used to communicate. “Voy” Spanish for “I go”, used in this instance to mean “I’m here”, acts as a warning that one player is about to tackle another. Since the sport is so reliant on sound, the crowd have to remain silent when watching. Blind football is then, a very different beast to sighted football.
Other Blind SportsBlind football isn’t the only example of traditionally sighted sports being transformed into blind sports. Blind swimmers are notified that they are reaching the end of the pool by “tappers”. Tappers are people who stand at either end of the pool with a long rod with a soft ball attached. This is used to tap the swimmer as they approach the end of the swimming pool so that the swimmer can compete at full strength, with confidence that they won’t hit the side.
Tappers and swimmers have to do substantial training together to get timing perfect and build trust, as if a tapper gets it wrong, or a swimmer doesn’t trust a tapper it could have hazardous consequences.
Blind runners have guides to assist them as they run. These guides run with them but must cross the line after the athlete or else the athlete will be disqualified. The 2012 Paralympics is the first time guides have received medals as well as athletes.
It is hoped that the Paralympic will have a genuine and long-lasting impact on attitudes to not only disabled people in sport, but disabled people more widely. Seeing innovative adaptations of sports and exclusive Paralympic sports gives an insight to those who may not be aware of just how much Paralympians are capable of. The Paralympics have demonstrated how possible it is to make our environments and activities accessible to everyone, if both the will and skill to make the changes exists.